The win carried into Monday like it always did, but this time it felt different for Violet.
People didn’t just talk about the game. They talked about everything around it. Marcelo’s performance, the way he carried himself, and somehow, her name kept slipping into those conversations too. Not loudly, not boldly, but enough that she noticed.
It wasn’t admiration exactly.
It was attention.
And attention, she was still learning how to handle.
She moved through the hallway like she had been doing all week, steady and unbothered on the outside, even when she could feel eyes following her. It wasn’t uncomfortable in the same way it used to be. It just felt… new.
“Okay, I need to know what’s going on,” her best friend said, catching up to her near their lockers.
“Nothing’s going on.”
“That
